Dilemmanade

When life gives me dilemmas, I make dilemmanade. –Allie S.

(a quote I found on facebook, that made me literally laugh out loud)

Ansley has had quite the start feeding wise. She didn’t want to suck at all until she was 20hours old. We had learned our lesson with Caleb going too long with out eating, so I immediately started pumping and dropper feeding her. This saved us from having problems with her blood sugar and jaundice. Between hospital stays I thought that she was eating. It was a fight to nurse her but I didn’t think anything abnormal was going on. With all the procedures during her second hospital stay, she went a long stretch again without eating again. We pulled out the dropper again to get any amount of milk in her.  With all the stress going on with me worrying about my little girl and her not eating right, I almost lost all of my milk supply.  It took me a couple of days after she got discharged to realize something(or nothing in this case) was going on.

Ever since I realized there were abnormal difficulties with her nursing. I started pumping after every feeding and giving her what milk I did have in a bottle.  She immediately started to gain weight and have more awake times. Both signs to me that she was in starvation/hibernation mode.  Even though the pediatrician wasn’t alarmed yet, my mother’s intuition had kicked in and I knew something had to be done.  I called the lactation consultants from the hospital and scheduled an appointment.  They were able to weigh her before and after she “ate”. Unfortunately she gained no weight, which means that she got no milk. 

Anatomy wise, Ansley has everything working against her. She is a cute one just doesn’t have the mouth needed to help her with nursing. Her mouth is too small, her palate is too high, her tongue is too far back.  All things that are just her normal. She also doesn’t have a strong suck or a strong desire to eat. And with my diminished milk supply we were not a winning team.

I have started to take a herbal medicine called Fenugreek three times a day, and a prescription medicine, Reglan, three times a day. Both medicines are supposed to increase your milk supply. It is crazy that I am dealing with a decreased supply because with Caleb, I had so much milk not only would I drown him, I was able to feed another baby with my excess milk! So now I am trying to breastfeed her for 10minutes only(so she doesn’t waste too many calories working too hard), then I bottle feed her, then I have to pump so I have some milk for the next feeding. It is quite the intense feeding regimen, but we hope that once she gets a little bigger and a little stronger we will be able to successfully breastfeed again.

Everyone has been able to get in on the feeding action these days.

I found these verses this week in my emailed daily devotions. They brought me to tears and to realize that even though I don’t feel like it, God is in control.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” –Phil. 4:6-7

“Be still and know that I am God” –Psalm 46:10

“It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones. Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them.” Psalm 127:1-5a